A Young Doctor's Notebook and Other Stories

Russia, 1917. Straight out of medical school, a young doctor is sent to a remote village in the middle of nowhere to run a small hospital. The young doctor soon discovers that the realities of his profession bear no resemblance to his training and learns that textbooks are no help to him now.

Slowly but surely, the young doctor abandons his dreams. His ambition to make medical discoveries is thwarted as his effort to fight a syphilis epidemic falters in the face of uneducated, hostile peasants. His spirit and sense of purpose remains unbroken, though, until he discovers how brutal day-to-day surgery can be when confronted with a gruesome and barbaric operation.

In spite of his success in the operating room, life in the snow-bound hospital begins to take its toll on the young doctor. His efforts to combat his feelings of boredom and isolation are defeated and he wonders how much longer he can last. Nursing abdominal pains and two harrowing cases, the young doctor is tempted by the allure of morphine...

Balancing a heavy workload with a developing morphine habit, the young doctor finds it increasingly difficult to conceal his burgeoning addiction from his colleagues. After one humiliation too many, he resolves to make a clean start and a dedicated effort to combat the syphilis epidemic. But a blizzard-bound journey to visit a dying patient proves to be his toughest test yet.